2.5%
services: 83.5% (1996 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): -1.1% (1997)

Labor force: 30,000

Labor force--by occupation: commerce and services 82%, agriculture
11%, industry 7% (1983)

Unemployment rate: 9% (1997 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $122.6 million
expenditures: $141.2 million, including capital expenditures of
$17.3 million (1997 est.)

Industries: tourism, construction, light manufacturing (clothing,
alcohol, household appliances)

Industrial production growth rate: 6% (1997 est.)

Electricity--production: 95 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 100%
hydro: 0%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 95 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: cotton, fruits, vegetables, bananas,
coconuts, cucumbers, mangoes, sugarcane; livestock

Exports: $37.8 million (1997)

Exports--commodities: petroleum products 48%, manufactures 23%,
food and live animals 4%, machinery and transport equipment 17%

Exports--partners: OECS 26%, Barbados 15%, Guyana 4%, Trinidad and
Tobago 2%, US 0.3%

Imports: $325.5 million (1997)

Imports--commodities: food and live animals, machinery and
transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, oil

Imports--partners: US 27%, UK 16%, Canada 4%, OECS 3%, other 50%

Debt--external: $240 million (1997 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $2.3 million (1995)

Currency: 1 East Caribbean dollar (EC$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: East Caribbean dollars (EC$) per US$1--2.7000
(fixed rate since 1976)

Fiscal year: 1 April--31 March

Communications

Telephones: 6,700

Telephone system:
domestic: good automatic telephone system
international: 1 coaxial submarine cable; satellite earth station--1
Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Saba (Netherlands
Antilles) and Guadeloupe

Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 2, shortwave 0 (repeater
transmitters for Deutsche Welle and BBC world broadcasts) (1998)

Radios: NA

Television broadcast stations: 2 (1997)

Televisions: 28,000 (1993 est.)

Transportation

Railways:
total: 77 km
narrow gauge: 64 km 0.760-m gauge; 13 km 0.610-m gauge (used almost
exclusively for handling sugarcane)

Highway